LLU 7

Since I couldn’t have my mother sit next to him, I sat in the back with him, and my mother ultimately had no choice but to sit awkwardly in the passenger seat.

The atmosphere flowing through the car was uncomfortable. It was a pressure I had never felt when I was sitting across from my mother, having a meal just a moment ago. The man sitting next to me was someone who made even the air we breathed together heavy. To desperately ignore the sense of oppression that kept pressing down on my skin, I fixed my gaze out the car window.

“Was the baby doing well?”

It was Choi Junghan who broke the silence first.

“Ah, y-yes, of course. The baby is… very healthy, they said.”

My mother’s shoulders flinched. It seemed I wasn’t the only one uncomfortable with sharing a ride with Choi Junghan. Still, if there was a difference between my mother and me, it was that my mother was happy he had spoken to her.

But as for me, there was no way to lower the thorns I had raised against him. His tone was gentle and kind, but he couldn’t hide his attitude of naturally looking down on my mother. From Choi Junghan’s perspective, there was no need to, so he was probably not making even the slightest effort to hide it.

“You must be very happy.”

However, Choi Junghan’s low and sweet voice easily opened the door to my mother’s hesitant heart. With a hostile expression, I watched as he trespassed into my mother’s heart.

“Yes. Actually, it’s a bit embarrassing to say this in front of you, Mr. Junghan, and our Ooni, but since we’re going to be… family… now, to be honest.”

My mother’s shy voice continued.

“I’ve never been as happy as I am now in my entire life. The Chairman is so good to me… Honestly, I’m getting older, and I’ve been through this once before, you know? And I’ve raised our Ooni now.”

Even as he listened to my mother’s long-winded story, Choi Junghan showed no signs of boredom at all. Leaning back comfortably in his seat with his head tilted, he tapped his fingers on his thigh. As if he were gleefully planning his next move in front of a game board.

“But still, I’m so… happy that I’m not afraid of giving birth again at this age. And Ooni, and you, Mr. Junghan. It seems like everyone has so graciously accepted our late new start, and I’m so thankful.”

I wanted to cover my mother’s mouth. To tell her to stop. Everything she was saying with sincerity was no different from handing that man bullets to attack me with. The happier my mother appeared, the more it would become a trap for Choi Junghan to ensnare me, leaving me unable to move.

“There’s no reason not to accept it graciously.”

Choi Junghan said, as if amused.

“We’re not children, and for grown children, their parents’ happiness comes first.”

Son of a b**ch. The words rose up to my throat, but I barely managed to swallow them. The anger that couldn’t be vented anywhere was contained in my trembling fist. And Choi Junghan looked at my fist, which was resting on my thigh, with a smiling face.

“I’m really grateful to our Ooni too, but the Chairman probably feels the same way about you, Mr. Junghan.”

To my mother’s words, Choi Junghan simply replied with a gentle smile.

After that, silence continued on the way home, but it was a different kind of silence than before. In the distinctly softened atmosphere, my mother seemed much more relaxed.

But I was not. The hostility I had painstakingly suppressed was simmering and boiling up. I felt like grabbing Choi Junghan by the collar and hitting him right then and there.

I could tolerate other things, but it was hard to watch him make a fool of my naive mother. This son of a b**ch had shrewdly identified that my mother was my Achilles’ heel and was relentlessly poking at that weakness.

Well, since our relationship had started by being entangled through that weakness, it was bound to be this way, but even considering that, watching what Choi Junghan was doing made my teeth chatter.

Why on earth. Why was he so intent on messing with me like this?

Today, I was determined to find out the answer.

“We’ve arrived.”

The driver parked the car in front of the alley, then got up and opened the passenger door. After my mother got out, I stuck my head out the car window towards her.

“Mom. Go on in first.”

“Why?”

Towards my mother, whose eyes were wide, I gave an awkward smile.

“I just have… something I want to ask for a moment.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“It’s a secret. Hurry and go inside.”

I deliberately showed an embarrassed smile. My mother, who had looked puzzled for a moment, soon let down her guard and nodded when she saw me let out a bashful laugh. Perhaps thinking that I had become much closer to Choi Junghan, she even wore a look of relief.

“Then take your time talking and come in. Mr. Junghan, thank you so much for today.”

“It was nothing.”

With a brief farewell, Choi Junghan raised the corners of his mouth. His gaze was fixed on me, not my mother. After confirming that my mother had gone inside the house, I glared at him and opened my mouth.

“What is this supposed to be?”

My chest heaved on its own. Clenching my fists tightly, I demanded an explanation from him.

“Do you have nothing better to do? Why are you following us to the obstetrics clinic and harassing us?”

“You don’t know your place, and you have no manners.”

Choi Junghan clicked his tongue softly.

“I guess getting hit that day wasn’t enough for you to grasp your place. Right?”

“And for you, wasn’t grabbing my hair and slapping my cheek that day enough? Why are you doing this to my mother too?”

“What did I do to your mother? I did nothing but give her a ride.”

“That’s what I mean, why are you giving me and my mother a ride?”

He twisted the corners of his mouth up. A smile spread across his utterly cold face. To me, who had repeatedly associated the word ‘psycho’ with him whenever I thought of him, it was a chilling face to see.

“She’s my mother now too, isn’t she?”

Choi Junghan’s eyes curved as he smiled with amusement. A hollow laugh burst out of me in disbelief.

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Lower your voice. I find it difficult to tolerate loud noises.”

I could tolerate other things, but I found it difficult to tolerate Choi Junghan talking about my mother in front of me. And also him talking about being older or younger brothers. When there wasn’t a single shred of sincerity in it.

Last time, I let it slide because we were in front of the adults, but today I had no intention of being helplessly beaten down by him. I glared at him with all my strength and spat out my words, enunciating each one.

“Listen carefully. I don’t know why you’re showing me all this unnecessary attention, but stop bringing up my mother. Because I’m finding it hard to tolerate it anymore.”

“What right do you have to say that?”

He smiled, baring his teeth.

“To the woman my father is taking in, can’t I even do this much?”

“You…!”

I almost grabbed him by the collar. My father’s woman. There was no way I couldn’t notice the strange nuance mixed in those words. He was not only showing no respect for my mother, but he was also intentionally choosing vulgar terms to use.

“Don’t be so insolent. ‘Tolerate’ is not a word for you to use.”

He stated definitively in an imposing voice and slowly reached out his hand. His long fingers came closer and pressed down hard on my chest.

“You are in the position of accepting. Understand?”

Choi Junghan’s eyes as he said that were cold, but at the same time, they were imbued with an unidentifiable heat. The gap between the two felt extremely strange. As if there was a meaning hidden behind those words that I didn’t fully understand.

“Just like your mother.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I tried to grab the finger that had poked my chest and twist it until it broke. But Choi Junghan, who snatched my lunging hand as smoothly as flowing water, smiled leisurely.

I felt the pressure from his eyes, which were fixed on me. It was a gaze that completely crushed its opponent. At the same time, his grip tightened on my wrist like a rusty trap. For a moment, it was a grip so strong that I felt a sense of fear that it might break.

“…Ack!”

“Don’t get swept up in your emotions and rush in recklessly. That right there is your fatal flaw.”

In a mocking tone, he whispered softly in my ear. The thick scent of his cologne, clinging damply, made my stomach churn for a moment.

“Let go of me! You son of a…!”

“I mean that I have no intention of putting up with your childish whining.”

I struggled so much that the whole car shook. I shook my wrist with all my might and flung Choi Junghan’s hand off. Surprisingly, he didn’t beat me or tighten his grip further, but let go obediently.

An arrogant gaze. A creeping realization unpleasantly enveloped my skin.

No matter what resistance I put up, I could pose no threat to him.

Choi Junghan’s physique and strength were in a realm I couldn’t even attempt to challenge. Also, trying to talk back to him was completely ineffective. His silver tongue crushed and annihilated me just as much as his physique did. So now, I had to try a different approach.

Before I could even fully catch my breath, I opened the car door. I got up, got out of the car, and before closing the door, I looked down at him and snarled.

“Get this straight. No matter what you do, I have no intention of just quietly accepting it.”

I forced myself to coolly suppress my chest, which was puffed up with anger. In the face of my boiling rage, my heart rate rose higher and higher, and my voice trembled like an idiot.

“And, look forward to it. Because I’m not going to just stand by anymore either.”

“Good.”

A cool voice came from inside.

“I’ll look forward to it. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Choi Junghan said that and smiled. His eyes, as he smiled baring his teeth, glinted with a strange light.

Madness. There was no other way to describe him in that moment.

An unsettling shiver wrapped around my whole body. After slamming the car door shut, I went inside the house.

My mother, who had already removed her makeup and changed into comfortable clothes, asked what we had talked about and smiled in a friendly way. I mechanically lifted the corners of my mouth. After giving a half-hearted reply like, just stuff, I went into the bathroom and took off my clothes. On the inside of my wrist, which Choi Junghan had grabbed, a red handprint was stamped like a brand.

Fucking son of a b**ch.

I automatically ground my teeth. I turned on the water irritably, then crawled under the showerhead and suppressed my resentful breaths.